1 Chronicles
1 Chronicles 17
1When David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of Yahweh’s covenant is in a tent.”
2Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you.”
3That same night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 4“Go and tell David my servant, ‘Yahweh says, “You shall not build me a house to dwell in; 5for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tent to another. 6In all places in which I have walked with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ ” ’
7“Now therefore, you shall tell my servant David, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel. 8I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth. 9I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not waste them any more, as at the first, 10and from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I tell you that Yahweh will build you a house. 11It will happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your offspring after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. 13I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him that was before you; 14but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever.” ’ ” 15According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
16Then David the king went in, and sat before Yahweh; and he said, “Who am I, Yahweh God, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far? 17This was a small thing in your eyes, God; but you have spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have respected me according to the standard of a man of high degree, Yahweh God. 18What can David say yet more to you concerning the honor which is done to your servant? For you know your servant. 19Yahweh, for your servant’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, to make known all these great things. 20Yahweh, there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeem out of Egypt? 22For you made your people Israel your own people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God. 23Now, Yahweh, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken. 24Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel. The house of David your servant is established before you.’ 25For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. 26Now, Yahweh, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant. 27Now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Yahweh, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”
Commentary
No commentary on this chapter yet.
What others are saying
5 commentators · 21 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
Let us observe here, I. How desirous and solicitous good people should be to serve the interests of God's kingdom in the world, to the utmost of their capacity. David could not be easy in a house of cedar while the ark was lodged within curtains, Ch1 17:1…
We have here David's solemn address to God, in answer to the gracious message he had now received from him. By faith he receives the promises, embraces them, and is persuaded of them, as the patriarchs, Heb, Ch1 11:13. How humbly does he here abase himself…
John Gill1
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
See Chapter Introduction
Adam Clarke8
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
Now it came to pass - See every thing recorded in this chapter amply detailed in the notes on Sa2 7:1 (note), etc.
But have gone from tent to tent - "I have transferred my tabernacle from Gilgal to Nob, from Nob to Shiloh, and from Shiloh to Gibeon." - Targum and Jarchi.
Neither shall the children of wickedness - They shall no more be brought into servitude as they were in the time they sojourned in Egypt. This is what is here referred to.
Keil & Delitzsch1
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
See Chapter Introduction Next: 1 Chronicles Chapter 18
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown9
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
I . . . have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another--The literal rendering is, "I was walking in a tent and in a dwelling." The evident intention (as we may see from Ch1 17:6) was to lay stress upon the fact that God was a Mithhatlek (a…
spake I a word to any of the judges--In Sa2 7:7 it is "any of the tribes" of Israel. Both are included. But the judges "who were commanded to feed the people," form the more suitable antithesis to David. Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?--that is…
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote--a round tower of rude construction, high walled, but open at the top, in which sheep are often enclosed at night to protect them from wild beasts. The meaning is, I elevated you to the throne from…
World English Bible — Public domain